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Page 6
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MPL IS NOT THE ANSWER In the name of ‘Muslim Personal Law’ some people are advocating that the Shariah be drastically tampered with in order to impose on Muslims alien concepts spawned by the desire to placate modernist ideas and to make Islam more compatible and acceptable to non-Muslims and the kuffaar constitution of the country. In a special edition of The Majlis we had explained in some detail the corruption of the so-called MPL draft bill which the committee of deviants is hellbent on getting accepted by the government. Anyone who has not read the special edition of The Majlis, may write to us for a copy. WHAT IS MPL Muslim Personal Law purports to bring within its scope the following :
The committee appointed by the government at the behest of the selfsame committee members lays much stress on their concept of MPL. The degree of the emphasis which is given by them to their MPL conveys the impression that Islam is confined to only a system of marriage, divorce and related issues. What excludes Inheritance from Muslim Personal Law? What excludes the institutions of Salaat, Zakaat and Hajj from Muslim Personal Law? What excludes Islamic education from Muslim Personal Law. And, what excludes from Muslim Personal Law all the other branches of the Shariah related to everyday life for all Muslims? OBSESSED Why is the Project Committee which has spawned the kufr MPL draft bill so obsessed with only marriages and divorces? If they are genuinely concerned about the Deeni life of Muslims, why have they excised everything else and chosen only marriage and divorce? Are the other departments of Allah’s Deen insignificant and of no importance? All laws of the Shariah are related to Muslims and as such should be included within the purview of any genuine concept of Muslim Personal Law acceptible to Islam. ACCEPTABLE Speaking of acceptibility, it should be borne in mind that no matter in what type of flowery and deceptive hues the Project Committee may paint their perculiar un-Islamic concepts and proposals about marriage and divorce, it cannever succeed to make the Shariah compatible with the secular constitution of the country nor can the constitution be compatible with the Shariah. For any brand of Muslim Personal Law to be compatible with the secular constitution and be accepted by the government, the imperative requirement is that the Shariah’s laws pertaining to Nikah, Talaaq, Hidhaanah, etc., be changed to the degree that there be no conflict between the secular and the Shar’i system. But this entails tampering with the immutable Shariah of Allah Ta’ala and abrogating Shar’i laws at whim and fancy. The draft bill which the deviant committee has submitted to the Law Commission for approval bears ample testimony to the kufr manipulation of the Shariah. The shocking reality is that this kufr manipulation and fabrication of alien laws are in diametric conflict with the Qur’aan and Sunnah. And, this hotch-potch of kufr has been cooked up by a committee of supposed Muslims led and guided by a senior Molvi of South Africa. PECULIAR Putting it in a very mild form, we have to say that the obsession with ‘rights of women’ betrayed by the Project Committee, is indeed perculiar. If someone concludes that it is sinister, such a conclusion will also be valid. Islam has its own apparatus and forums for dealing with marriages, divorces and related matters, so what is the imperative need for the drastic measure of mutilating the Shariah in a vain bid to make it compatible with the secular constitution? The argument that the Islamic Forum in this non-Muslim country has no clout and its rulings cannot be enforced is drivel and an attempt to deliberately mislead and deceive the community. Nothing prevents the aggrieved woman from acting in accordance with a decision handed down by an Islamic forum or by an Islamic tribunal as some like to call it. In fact, the woman can even summon the law-enforcing agencies to assist her if the errant and spiteful man refuses to abide by the decision handed down by the Islamic ‘court’ notwithstanding the fact that such a ‘court’ has no legal power in this country. ISLAMIC COMMITTEES Islamic committees, whether of Ulama or of senior members of the community, have Islamic right and power to investigate marital problems, to appoint arbitrators, to appoint counsellors, to listen to applications for annulment of marriages, to annul marriages, to rule on custody and maintenance, etc. If an Islamic committee annuls a marriage in accordance with the procedure laid down by the Shariah, the woman is free to leave the marital home after her iddat and marry someone else. The man has no right, neither Islamic nor legal in terms of the country’s constitution, to prevent the woman from leaving his house. If he does attempt to prevent her physically, she can call in the police. The man is powerless. If the ex-husband refuses to maintain her and his children in accordance with what the Shariah prescribes, the woman can resort to the court of the land for relief. If she so much as threatens to go to court —in fact, most divorced Muslim women behave like kuffaar women by proceeding to court and extracting haraam money from their ex-husbands —the man will quickly settle and agree to submit to the Shariah because he is fully aware that the imposition of the Shariah is just and comparatively speaking, he will have to pay considerably less than the exhorbitant amount the court will impose on him. Furthermore, if he fails to comply with the court’s order he is liable for imprisonment. Therefore it is in his own interest to comply with the ruling issued by the Islamic committee. CUSTODY As far as custody of minors is concerned, the woman has the upperhand in this sphere as well. If the woman is Deeni inclined she will accept the ruling of the Islamic committee. The husband too will accept it because he knows that if he refuses and the woman enlists the aid of the kuffaar courts, then he will be totally deprived of custody of his children and for almost two decades, depending on the ages of the minors, he will have to pay very high amounts as maintenance for his children, long beyond the age that they are capable of earning. In fact he will have to pay for even their haraam expenses such as university education and the haraam paraphernalia associated with such institutions. THE MAN IS THE LOSER In every sphere of so-called Muslim Personal Law, the man is the loser if he refuses to submit to the decision of the Islamic court, that is, if his wife has brought an application to the Committee. If he rejects the decision of the Islamic ‘court’, he opens up the way for his wife to proceed to the kuffaar court which will almost certainly issue a verdict against him and put him to great hardship with its haraam and unjust decrees of extortion. Inspite of this reality, the Project Committee paints a dismal picture of the woman being the victim of suffering. But this is untrue. Even in a non-Muslim country there are sufficient Shar’i instruments to apply pressure on the husband. Either he mends his ways or honourably releases the woman to go her way. If he refuses, the Islamic committee set up for this purpose has the full Shar’i right to annul the nikah and set the woman free. When this can be executed in compliance with the Shariah, then of what purpose and need is this confounded MPL measure which has taken it upon itself to interpolate and tamper with the Shariah in the way in which the ulama of Bani Isra-eel were adept? And on the assumption that there is no way of enforcing the decree of the Shar’i committee, then too it is haraam to act in accordance with the kind of measures proposed in the MPL draft bill because such measures are in conflict with the immutable Shariah of Allah Ta’ala. The name Muslim Personal Law is thus highly misleading. |